U-Sector – The Original Toronto FC Supporters Group

Are You Ready For Some Futbol?!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

When all is said and done, Tuesday night will likely be among the toughest in Toronto FC’s season.

The Reds travel to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to take on host C.D. Motagua in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League preliminary round. TFC heads to the Honduran capital with a 1-0 advantage in the two-legged, total-goal series, and looks to endure 90 minutes at Estadio Nacional with at least the same goal differential intact.

It’s not hyperbole to say that this away match may be the most inhospitable road venue Toronto will have ever played in. Of course, it may not end up being that bad. It all really depends on how much the Motagua fans care about the continental competition.

In Motagua’s last season of play, the club’s home crowds have varied from Toronto Lynx levels for matches played against unfancied opponents like Real Juventud to good (but not impressive by TFC’s standards) for derbies against rival C.D. Olimpia.

The difference isn’t in the sheer numbers though, as FC Dallas would easily reign supreme attendance-wise if it were suddenly to play in the Honduran league.

No, the difference is in the passion among those fans in attendance. In MLS play, the most intimidating road atmosphere TFC has to face is created by 36,000 placid, green-clad left coasters yelling “Seattle… Sounders” back and forth for 90 minutes. And that’s the pinnacle of it.

Most of the time on the road, the Reds face a few thousand hardcores singing the same songs as everyone else in the league, while the rest of the partially-filled stadium is either disinterested or more worried about watching the “rowdies” at one end of the park than the game itself.

And still, Toronto is awful on the road in those tame conditions.

Contrast this to what TFC could be looking forward to on Tuesday.

Sweltering, early-August heat. Terrible pitch conditions. Awful, biased officiating that panders to every dive the home side can muster (and there will be a lot of that on display). Oh, and fans in the stands that live and die with their team, to the point where throwing bags of human waste is considered acceptable behaviour.

Toronto will be facing conditions that will test their mettle like never before, especially if a decent-sized crowd shows up.

Yet, this just might be the best thing that could happen for our beloved Reds.

If anything, Toronto has shown that it is a highly-temperamental side that is a mirror of the energy of whatever building it is playing in. At BMO Field, TFC is motivated, hard-working, and a general pain-in-the-ass for the opposition. Away from the energetic-yet-comfy confines of home, the Reds are generally lazy, uninspired, and accident prone.

Of course, there are exceptions. In Los Angeles earlier this season, TFC fought tooth-and-nail to hold the league-leading Galaxy to a 0-0 draw. At San Jose, the Reds dominated the home side, winning 3-1 against a rejuvenated Earthquakes team that is in the thick of the playoff hunt.

The common theme among those two rare positive road results is that, aside from both coming against very good west coast clubs, both matches were played in front of loud, involved crowds.

It’s a crackpot theory in a season that has yet to make much sense, but it seems that Toronto plays well on the road only if the opposition is good, and the fans are into it.

With that in mind, I say to Motagua and its faithful, “bring it on!”

Posted by Rudi Schuller